A Feast of Russian Arts

B) Discuss the text with your partner.

Below is a review of the Russian Festival of Music hi which a Scottish journalist extolls the virtues of Russian music, a) Read the text and note down any useful expressions in giving a positive appraisal of music,

Most of the expressions which you found in the dialogue (Ex. 7) are used to criticise something or somebody.

C) As a group, now decide which event you will all attend together. When giving your criticism try to be honest, but tactful.

9. Group work. Discuss the effect of rode music on young people. After a proper discussion each group presents its critical remarks. First read this:

There are world-wide complaints about the effect of rock. Psychologists say that listening to rock music results in "escap­ism" (abandoning social responsibilities). They also add that some rock rftiislc (for example certain heavy metal songs) affect young people like drugs. There are well-known cases of anti­social and amoral behaviour on the part of young "music ad­dicts". How cfo you feel about this opinion?

The strong and impressive Russian theme at this year's Edinburgh Festival commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.

The festival opened on August 9 with three giant compa­nies, the Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and Leningrad's Gorky Drama Theatre, and the spectacular young traditional folk music and dance group Siverko, from the arctic city of Arkhangelsk.

Other musicians in the first week included the Bolshoi Sextet, and the final week sees the arrival of the Shostakovich Quartet.

The first of the four programmes by the Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, in an Usher Hall draped with garlands, was a fascinating demonstration of Russian tone quality and Russian interpretation. After the two national anthems the rustling, atmospheric opening movement of the suite from Rimsky-Korsakov's Invisible City ofKitezh, with some particularly expressive strands of oboe tone, was sufficiently promising to make the thought of even a familiar piece of Tchaikovsky seem exciting.

Nobody, at any rate, could have called the Rimsky familiar. Though it was performed in an arrangement by Maximilian

Steinberg, this did not prevent the brazen battle scene, with its ferocious side-drum, from being a sensational display of Russian strength, or the woodwind passages in other movements from being an exquisite display of Russian sweetness.

The account of the symphony was quite remarkable. It was played with thrilling velocity (yet with sufficient breathing-space where Tchaikovsky asked for it), with beautifully charac­terized woodwind, keenly defined textures and a penchant for highlighting inner parts, especially if they happened to involve the horns. The conductor, Mark Ermler was more in his ele­ment in Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony.

Whether or not one actually liked the horn tune was beside the point. It was authentically Russian, and though, at the start of the slow movement, it sounded like an amplified saxophone, its eloquence was not to be gainsaid. In small details — such as the effect of the cellos and basses doing entirely different things at points in the finale — just as in the symphony's grand design, this was a stunning performance and perhaps, after all, a Festival event.

What one did expect and received was a performance of massive vocal integrity and a grand convincing enunciation of the music by Irina Arkhipova, with a recurring arm move­ment — hand stretched towards the audience.

In the event, the curtains of the Playhouse Theatre opened to reveal a company that were the epitome of everything we have come to expect from a Russian folk dance group — vast numbers, and endless variety of colourful and beautifully-em-broided costumes, and — most important of all — boundless energy and infectious enthusiasm. The musicians, all extreme­ly accomplished, performed on zither and some remarkable va­rieties of shawm.

It all finished with the entire company lined up in front of the stage singing Auld Lang Syne — a characteristically warm­hearted gesture to end a programme that was irresistibly good-natured, impeccably presented, skilfully performed, entertain­ing and enjoyable — and which left the audience clamouring insatiably for more.

(From: "The Scotsman," August 11, 1987)

11. Group discussion. Discuss the rote of music in Russia. After a proper discussion each group presents brief information on music ufe in Russia. Con­sider the following:

1. Russian music of the 18th and 19th centuries.

2. Music of the 30s-40s.

3. Contemporary music.

12. Do some library research and write an essay on:

The development of music in the multinational countries (Russia, the USA, Canada).

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